Dacorum is a local government district with borough status in Hertfordshire, England. The council is based in Hemel Hempstead. The borough also includes the towns of Berkhamsted and Tring and surrounding villages. The borough had a population of 155,081 in 2021.^[2] Dacorum was created in 1974 and is named after the ancient hundred of Dacorum which had covered a similar area. The borough of Dacorum is the westernmost of Hertfordshire's ten districts. It borders St Albans, Three Rivers, Buckinghamshire and Central Bedfordshire.

Dacorum means "of the Dacians" in medieval Latin.^{[lower-alpha 1][3]} The name appears to reference a period in Saxon times when the area formed part of the Danelaw which covered much of what is now eastern England, although the duration and extent of Danish occupation in this area is unclear and continues to be debated by historians. In 1086, the Domesday Book records a hundred called Danais (also meaning "of the Danes") and a neighbouring hundred called Tring; the two had merged into a single hundred by about 1200 which was thereafter called Dacorum.^[4] From the seventeenth century onwards, hundreds gradually declined in importance as administrative divisions, with their functions passing to other bodies such as the county courts. The final administrative functions of hundreds were extinguished in 1886.^[5]

The modern local government district of Dacorum was created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, covering the whole area of five former districts and parts of another two, which were all abolished at the same time:^[6]

• Berkhamsted Rural District
• Berkhamsted Urban District
• Hemel Hempstead Municipal Borough
• Hemel Hempstead Rural District
• St Albans Rural District (part within designated area of Hemel Hempstead New Town only)
• Tring Urban District
• Watford Rural District (part within designated area of Hemel Hempstead New Town only)

The new district was named Dacorum after the medieval hundred, which had covered a similar area.^[7]

The district was granted borough status in 1984, allowing the chair of the council to take the title of mayor. Hemel Hempstead had maintained Charter Trustees from 1974 to 1984. The amalgamation of the former local authorities was symbolised in the seven oak leaves which surround a Tudor rose on the Dacorum coat of arms, issued in 1992.^[8]

Hertfordshire has a two-tier structure of local government, with the ten district councils (including Dacorum Borough Council) providing district-level services, and Hertfordshire County Council providing county-level services. In some areas there is an additional third tier of civil parishes.^[11]

Since the last boundary changes in 2007 the council has comprised 51 councillors, representing 25 wards, with each ward electing one, two or three councillors. The whole council is elected together every four years.^[17]

Hemel Hempstead is an unparished area. The rest of the borough is divided into 16 civil parishes, with Berkhamsted and Tring parish councils taking the style "town council". The civil parishes are:^[18]

In terms of television, Dacorum is served by BBC London and ITV London with television signals received from the Crystal Palace transmitter ^[20] and the Hemel Hempstead relay transmitter.^[21] However, Tring receive regional overlaps of both Sandy Heath (BBC East/ITV Anglia) ^[22] and Oxford (BBC South/ITV Meridian) transmitters. ^[23]

Radio stations for the area are:

• BBC Three Counties Radio
• Heart Hertfordshire
• Greatest Hits Radio Bucks, Beds and Herts (covering Tring)
• Mix 92.6
• Community-based radio stations: Radio Dacorum ^[24] and Tring Radio ^[25]

Local newspapers are Hemel Hempstead Gazette and St Albans Observer.

• The Borough of Dacorum is twinned with:
  • Neu-Isenburg, Germany

Two of the civil parishes in the borough also maintain their own separate twinning arrangements:

• Berkhamsted Town Council is twinned with:
  • Beaune (France)
• Kings Langley Parish Council with:
  • Bakau (Gambia).

• Primary schools in Dacorum